Bottom Line Up Front:
- There was a chance during and after the first "wave" of COVID, Jan-May 2020, to enforce policies to minimize morbidity and fatality; partisan politicians blocked those
- COVID will now potentially be the greatest mass casualty event ever on U.S. soil.

- Spread of COVID is now uncontrolled. We cannot understand it without mass testing that politicians refused to order.
- Numbers of hospitalized patients are growing exponentially.
- Deaths will inevitably follow exponential growth - although, now, hospital systems may collapse.

- The collapse of urban hospital systems due to COVID will most likely set off a chain reaction throughout community and rural hospitals as well.
- In addition to mass death from COVID, fatalities and other negative outcomes will increasingly result from all diseases/crises.

- America in particular has not seen nor required mass social action from a public health crisis since the Spanish Influenza of 1919.
- Awareness of America's mass casualties from war have been filtered by the media to some degree since 1865.
- These deaths will not be filtered.

AMERICA IS HEADED FOR MULTIPLE CRISES:
- Hospital systems will be stressed to the point of collapse within weeks.
- Logistics of processing, storing, and burying the dead will overwhelm current systems; it will take weeks to months of emergency to catch up.

- Social institutions must function at the most minimal level if we are to avoid the most damaging scenarios. School and workplace activities will need to stop in favor of allowing healthcare systems and first responders to have maximum resources and minimal strain.

- Financial systems will collapse due to their dependence on forward-looking debt structures at every level, from consumers to megabanks to central banks. Those debt structures will destabilize in a matter of weeks.
- Only central governments will be able to coordinate relief.

France's Macron government is the only example thus far of the policies apparently necessary to maintain national security and domestic stability: these include debt jubilees, state contracts/commandeering of private sector resources, strict enforcement of individual freedoms.

- Any transition to such historic, emergency policies will be forced to take place during the psychological and logistical trauma of mass death, as well as the political shift away from hostile intelligence service-fueled "populist" propaganda movements.

- The complexity of policies that might result in potential best-case scenarios are beyond the reach of most governments at present.
- Political shifts could be made possible by the recent Biden election that would enable multiple governments to take such measures.

- Open source analyses (*lacking classified intelligence) show signals of a shift toward a post-Trump America and renewed strength in the NATO alliance; domestic politics of multiple NATO member states as well as policies of adversary states such as China show positive movement.

- Best case scenarios would likely depend on a strong, central source of expert policy that guides and coordinates policies tailored for and executed by regional, state, and local governments.

- A new Biden administration could centralize that policy within the United States, but also to coordinate activities among military allies, particularly NATO, but also the Pacific QUAD (U.S., Australia, India, Japan.)
- France currently has leadership among Euro nations.

- Significant risks are posed by continued hybrid warfare by adversarial states and networks such as Russia, China, Saudi Arabia, and Transnational Organized Crime.
- A balance between domestic health policy and national security policy will be unique and extremely challenging.

WHAT WE CAN DO AS CITIZENS:
Above is the executive analysis - and all citizens should consider it because this is our Republic, and our lives are at stake.

Then, there is the human element, one closer to us - but also in for a terrible shock. We must prepare.

There is no way to sugar coat this - though it was likely good to get Trump out of the way before fully engaging this reality.

We will need to muster every bit of maturity, fearlessness, wisdom, and strength to survive and thrive.

I'm sorry, it will be excruciating.

First, all people must push aside the childish impulses to blindly face holocaust rather than coldly face reality.

We - our loved ones, our neighbors - need a laser focus on how to survive this crucible.

We need leaders. WE must be leaders. It will not be easy.

There are some bitter truths.

If we have Thanksgiving "like normal," we'll be burying Grandma at Christmas.

Nobody is "above" going through the ugliest part of this massacre.

People will dislike truth-tellers attempting to save their lives.

School will not be normal.
Shopping will not be normal.
Life will not be normal.

People will die like we've never seen.
Doctors and nurses will die next to their patients.

It will be a nightmare. If we are to live through it - we cannot look away.

I'm sorry.

Life will be a difficult balance between trying to lead and pulling together and NOT letting that one selfish wretch at the grocery store parade around unbothered with their mask off.

It will be hard. But we must be disciplined and hard to survive this.

It will not be fun.

I thus ask you to look into a very special word from the Finnish people and their impossible, beautiful language:

SISU.

Sisu is what allows Finns to fight in the snow and ice for months and win. Ask them about "The Winter War."

Sisu, baby.

The fight for civilization runs through how we battle through the next few months.

Heroes are already in the fight, already ready to die so others may live.

What will you do? What strength will you call on? Who will you fight for?

You're not the first to face this. Who do you want to be?

I say, let us be the spirit of this little girl inspiring Winston Churchill at minute 4:00 of this clip:

Now you know.

We can get there. Together. We've got the best allies.

Love you all. Let's do it.

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